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Super Mario Kart

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Today, I am show some images from a prototype of Super Mario Kart. Thanks to DP member van_halen for letting me post these.

By: Evan G
Last updated: July 7, 2012

Well known prototype collector Simon Belmont recently began to sell his collection to fund his business endeavours. The prototype was originally owned by DreamTR. DP forum member van_halen purchased this prototype of Super Mario Kart and began to document differences from the released version. I took some screenshots from the final version for comparison. For the most part, they are minor graphical changes, but there is also different music on the ice stages. Van_halen also reports that the game is buggy at times.

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The pcb board
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Title screen from betaTitle screen from final. Note the different "TM" position
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Beta player selectFinal player select. Mario and Luigi's carts are slightly different on the rear end
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Beta cup selectIn the final version, they added a border and list the racing class
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The "going backwards" warning in the betaIn the final version, the flag has an "X". The sound Lakitu makes is also different. Note also that the muddy area of the course is slightly different.
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Cheep Cheep in the betaIn the final version, they Cheep Cheeps are not upside down.
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Getting second in the beta, the wine cork hits a Super KoopaIn the final, you just get a congrats message and a trophy
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In the prototype, the third battle course is based off Choco IslandIn the final version, the third battle course is an ice field
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"These four Flying Koopas appear when getting in third place, and the last one eventually gets shot down by the champagne cork. Sometimes the color palettes are different during the podium sequence. I have no clue why, but I'd assume it's just a bug. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place podium music in the final version is also absent in the prototype. Instead the final version's 4th place music plays everytime."

Some other information from the Digital Press thread:

The Rainbow Road course is quite a lot narrower than in the final version. The Bowser's Castle soundtrack is played there instead of the final Rainbow Road music. The opponent drivers keep falling into the water on Donut Plains 3 when trying to cross the broken bridge and they can't seem to stay on track for most parts of Rainbow Road, making them the two easiest courses in the prototype. Some animations (for example, the shoreline waves on Koopa Beach) aren't implemented yet as well.
Also, it's not possible to drop the green shells or shoot banana peels, the speed boost feature from the start is absent, no real ending or credits after finishing Special Cup (from what I've seen) and hence no 150cc mode.
I have found slight differences in some other soundtracks, those being mainly percussion variations, added/removed instruments, change in speed, etc. Many sound effects are also totally different or have slight variations to them, while some are completely missing.

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Bibliography

  • Thread on Digital Press (link)
  • Video on youtube showcasing the different music on the Vanilla Lake track (link)
  • Video on youtube showing the beta version of Battle Course 3 (link)
  • Thread on VGMusic, where people have transcribed the unreleased music into a midi (SNES sounding) format (link)
  • Thread on Lost Levels, with some additional information (link)

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